Internet troll paid by corporations?

Have you ever seen a post, comment, or reply that absolutely reeked of behind-the-scenes compensation by corporations like Monsanto? In the growing age of internet activism, and the expansion of social media as a tool to spread the word on real issues, paid internet trolling is becoming a new career path.

Now, in case you’re not familiar with what ‘trolling’ really is, I think Wikipedia has a great definition. According to Wikipedia, an internet troll is:

“…a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”

Does this sound like some posts you’ve seen before? Now, let’s be clear: there are tons of internet trolls out there that are absolutely not on the pay roll. Most of these people are genuinely just messing with others to get a laugh, a reaction, or whatever. Not arguing on behalf of multi-billion dollar corporationsfor up to 8 hours per day.

There’s the real difference. And, besides common sense dictating that corporations would surely hire a fleet of internet warriors to protect their brand reputation in the age of open source online communication, we now know for sure that companies like Monsanto have in fact dedicated ‘entire departments’ to trolling scientists and ‘discrediting’ those who oppose their GMO creations.

Monsanto Paying Fleet of Trolls to ‘Discredit’

Surprisingly, it was actually a Monsanto employee that unintentionally let the truth behind their ‘discrediting operation’ slip in a conference with students that he may have forgotten was open to the public. In a conversation with students, Dr. William “Bill” Moar raved that Monsanto had established:

“An entire department” (waving his arm for emphasis) dedicated to “debunking” science which disagreed with theirs.”

That’s huge news. We told you about this first back on the 6th of April – but I am absolutely shocked how it has not been covered to the extent it should have. Because, after all, how does a company ‘discredit’ and ‘debunk’ those who go against their destructive, cancer-linked products? By attacking them online through blogs, comments, and character assassination. In other words,by internet trolling.

It’s so much easier to say someone is a ‘quack,’ or create some fictitious and anonymous accusation to plague their search data than it is to actually have a scientific debate on issues like Roundup’s admitted probable carcinogenic nature.

via Infowars

Are you debating trolls? Don’t underestimate the power of social pressure to suppress the truth. insist on real answers to real questions. Calling something “a crackpot idea” without giving a valid reason the idea is wrong is one example of paid troll behavior.

Update: “Hackers” (corporate backed?), have succeeded in getting the health forum of a New York Times best selling author shutdown. As of 5/23/2015 the forum is still up and has many great health tips from readers, but due to the attacks, the author is shutting down the forum on 6/5/2015

http://community.chriskresser.com/. Please note: the forum will be permanently taken down on June 5th … If there is any content you’d like to save, make sure to do it before that date.